Ishant Sharma

He thereby became the first Indian paceman to win such an award in a Test series on Indian soil after Kapil Dev who won the award in 1983.

He was noted for achieving reverse swing on balls sometimes as young as eight overs, and along with senior opening bowler Zaheer Khan, troubled the touring Australians.

He took Australian captain Ricky Ponting's wicket three times during the series, and six times in as many Tests, making the Indian press label Ponting as Ishant's bunny.

Ishant Sharma (born 2 September 1988) is an Indian cricketer who has represented India in Tests, ODIs and T20Is.

He is a 6 ft 4 in tall right-arm fast-medium bowler.

At the age of 18, Sharma was called to join the Indian squad for the tour of South Africa in 2006–07.

However, after receiving the call and organising travel arrangements, he was deselected.

In reference to his height and lean physique in his Under-19 days, the bowler was nicknamed Lambu.

Ishant toured England with the India Under-19s in 2006 and Pakistan in 2006–07.

He played three youth tests and six youth One Day Internationals for India.

In May 2007, Sharma was selected in the test team for the Bangladesh tour and played as a replacement for the fast bowler Munaf Patel.

Over there he played for his national side in the second test where he bowled three overs including one maiden and conceded only five runs without taking a wicket.

Later on, he was called for the tour of England in July–August 2007.

Sharma got a call back in the team in the 3rd Test during Pakistan's tour of India in December 2007 due to injury of India's frontline pacers Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, and Sreesanth.

Sharma picked up 5 wickets during the third test in Bangalore.

This performance earned him a place in India's squad for the tour of Australia.

Sharma was left out in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne during the Border–Gavaskar Trophy as India retained their main fast bowlers, Zaheer Khan and RP Singh.

On the basis of his strong performance in Australia in 2008, Ishant Sharma was bought for a winning bid of $950,000 by Kolkata Knight Riders in the player auction for the Indian Premier League.

This was the highest amount paid for any bowler in the tournament.

However, in January 2008 Sharma was called to represent India once again to replace the injured Zaheer Khan in the second test at the SCG.

Sharma started the first day of the match strongly and was involved in a controversial decision from Steve Bucknor when Andrew Symonds nicked the ball to keeper MS Dhoni off his bowling but was given not out.

He bowled reasonably in the match, however without much luck.

Although he had little success, the management retained him for the third Test match at Perth.

On the fourth day of the match, he bowled an exceptional spell to Australian captain Ricky Ponting that resulted in his wicket and helped India claim victory.

He used the pace and bounce of the WACA wicket to trouble the batsmen.

In the following test played in Adelaide he picked up two wickets and impressed everyone with his bowling.

He finished the tour of Australia with figures of 6/358, an average of 59.66 and a strike rate of 101.0.

On 10 February 2008, Sharma bagged four important wickets in the 4th ODI of CB Series against Australia.

He ended the match with figures of 4/38 and named Man of the Match.

He scalped two important wickets on 18 February 2008 versus Australia in the 7th ODI of CB series.

During the 2008 Test series against Australia in India, Ishant was the leading wicket-taker, with 16, and was named man-of-the-series as India won 2–0.

In 2011, he became the fifth youngest player to take 100 Test wickets.

While being a "rhythm" bowler, he still is considered one of the fastest Indian bowlers having bowled in excess of 150 km/h on several occasions in international cricket as well as the IPL, his fastest being 152.2 km/h bowled to Ricky Ponting on Boxing Day Test in 2011.

Against South Africa in 2013, Ishant Sharma became the fifth quickest Indian to grab 100 ODI wickets.

Sharma was a member of the Indian team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

In February 2021, during the series against England, Ishant took his 300th wicket in Test cricket.

He is regarded as one of the greatest pacers in Indian Cricket.

Ishant plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and has taken 68 wickets in 14 first-class games, including a five-wicket haul against Baroda on the opening day of a match Delhi drew after failing to bowl Baroda out on the fourth day.

On 15 February 2018, it was officially announced that Ishant will join Sussex CCC for the first two months of the 2018 county season, available from 4 April to 4 June 2018, thus making him the 9th Indian to play for Sussex.

In 2020, Indian government has awarded him the Arjuna Award to recognize his outstanding achievement in cricket.